Tracy Dry Bean Festival - Sept. 10, 2005

Shawnna and I went to the Tracy Dry Bean Festival on September 10th. There aren't many dry beans at the festival anymore, but there were a good number of arts & crafts vendors and food vendors. It wasn't anything to write home about, but at least the weather was nice (low 70's at 6pm). The real reason we went was because I wanted to see one of the bands that was playing - Hollywood Allstarz.

Hollywood Allstarz is a band made up of former members of other high profile 80's bands. Here's the lineup:

Chas West - Vocals - Bonham / Lynch Mob
Carlos Cavazo - Guitar - Quiet Riot
Jeff Pilson - Bass - Dokken / Dio
Vinny Appice - Drums - Dio / Black Sabbath
Krigger - Drums - Giuffria / Tina Turner



Notice that there are 2 drummers and they both played on stage at the same time which made it interesting. They are basically a cover band that plays songs from the bands they used to be a part of as well as other classics. Some of the songs they covered were:

War Pigs - Black Sabbath
Bang Your Head - Quiet Riot
Cum on Feel the Noise - Quiet Riot
Holy Diver - Dio
Man on the Silver Mountain - Dio
You've Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest
Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin
Still of the Night - Whitesnake

Overall, the band was just a bunch of aging rockers and I was disappointed with the quality of the show, although the singer had a good range and the guitarist showed some nice skills. There were a couple of drunk women who were dancing near the front of the stage and the singer tried to get them to show their goods, but fortunately I think they were too drunk to understand (especially since there were kids present). Having 2 drummers on stage was completely pointless especially since they just had very basic drum kits and didn't even have a drumming battle. I guess you get what you pay for...

A Visitor In Our Backyard

This morning at 9am, I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I kept hearing a little bird chirping its head off in the backyard. I finally got up to see what all the ruckus was about and realized there was a barn owl sitting on our fence.


I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the little bird was the mama who had a nest in a tree nearby since we heard baby birds chirping earlier in the morning. When I went upstairs and opened the blinds to take a picture, the owl immediately looked up at me. After I snapped the shot, it spread its wings and flew away. Pretty amazing and not something you see everyday; especially in your backyard.